Savva and the Life of Man eBook

Fine people our neighbors are. It’s strange,
there are so many good people in the world, and yet
a man can die of hunger. Why is it?

WIFE

You’ve turned so sad. Your face is growing
pale. What is the matter? Do you see anything?

MAN

Yes, as I was joking, the terrible image of poverty
glided in front of me and stopped there, in the corner.
Do you see it? Arms stretched out in complaint,
a child abandoned in the woods, a praying voice, and
the stillness of a human desert. Help! No
one hears. Help, I’m dying! No one
hears. Look, wife, look! See the dark, gloomy
shadows there, quivering and rising like black smoke
from a long, terrible chimney leading into hell.
Look! And I’m in the midst of them!

WIFE

I’m afraid. I can’t look in that
dark corner. Did you see all that in the street?

MAN Yes, I saw it in the street, and soon it’ll
be that way with us.

WIFE

No, God will not permit it.

MAN

Then why does He permit it to happen to others?

WIFE

We’re better than others. We are good people.
We never offend Him.

MAN

You think so? I do a lot of swearing.

WIFE

You’re not bad.

MAN

Yes, I am bad. When I walk along the street and
see all the things that don’t belong to us,
I feel as if I had tusks like a boar. Oh, how
much money I haven’t got! Listen, my dear
wife. I was walking in the park to-day, that
lovely park, where the paths are straight as arrows
and the beech-trees like kings wearing crowns—­

WIFE

And I was walking in the city streets. Shops
everywhere, such beautiful shops!

MAN

WIFE

I saw elegantly dressed women, wearing dainty shoes
that make your feet beautiful, and pretty hats from
under which your eyes shine impenetrably, and silk
skirts that make such a mysterious rustle; and I thought:
“I haven’t a good hat or a silk skirt.”

MAN

A ruffian jostled me. I showed him my tusks,
and he fled in disgrace to hide himself in the crowd.